Immigrants Face a Slow March From the Margins

Whiteness — in the sense of racial classification — used to open the way into American life for large groups of poor immigrants. Until Reconstruction after the Civil War, there could be no naturalization without whiteness, and without naturalization, there could hardly be voting. In and of itself, voting expresses citizenship, one of two crucial qualities for inclusion, the other being economic mobility into the respectable working class.

Before the civil rights revolution of the mid-20th century, lack of whiteness kept the first great wave of (involuntary) immigrants — the Africans — and their descendants on the margins of American life. Without votes, they could not influence policy or work jobs in the public sector. Without steady wages, African-Americans remained poor. Still today, black race often serves as a proxy for poverty in public discourse, while whiteness stands for middle-class status.

The descendants of immigrants, like black slaves and famine Irish, gain acceptance when they can vote and rise into the middle class.

The second and third great immigrant waves came from Europe. In the mid-19th century, famine Irish, though disdained as an inferior race of Celts, were always classified as white and, if male, entitled to vote, sometimes even before naturalization. They bent politics in their favor, secured jobs with decent pay, and with the passage of the generations they rose economically. In the early 20th century, poor southern and eastern Europeans came to the U.S., again disdained as inferior races. Their children worked not only in industry, but also in jobs related to their ability to cast votes.

In the 21st century, a fourth great immigrant wave, Latino workers, arrives after the civil rights revolution loosened whiteness’s stranglehold on voting and steady employment. The recent presidential election, in which Latino voters figured prominently in the Obama coalition, marks a watershed in their move into acceptance as Americans. The children of Latino immigrants, some becoming teachers and police officers, are treading a familiar path from the margins into the center of Americanness.